Knitting machine



A ril 25, 1933. M. c. MILLER KNITTING MACHINE Original Filed April 10,1923 Patented Apr. 25, 1 933 MAX 0. MILLER, 01 CUMBERLAND, RHODE ISLANDKNITTING MACHINE Original application filed April 10, 1923, Serial No.631,071.

193 Serial Theinvention relates to knitting machines, and moreparticularly to means for pressing the needles of an independent springneedle machine, being a division of the applicants Patent No.-1,809,057,dated June 9, 1931,for

knitting machines. i

The object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved means forpressing the needles of a spring needle machine which will 19 act withgreater certainty than pressing devices previously developed, to engageand press the heard of the needles'in a uniform manner regardless of anyimperfections in or displacement of individual needles. .With this andother objects in view, the several features of the invention consist inthe devices, combinations and arrangements 1 of parts hereinafterdescribed, which together with the advantages to be obtained therebywill be readily understood by one skilled in the art from the followingdescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawin I din thedrawing, Fig. 1' is a sectional view of a needle cylinder illustratingthe cooperative arrangement of the spring needle, presser, sinker andweb holder; Fig. '2 is adiagrammatic plan view showing diagrammaticallythe arrangement of the presser slides which press the beards of theneedles and one of the presser actuating camsg'Figs. 3 and 4 areperspective views showingtwo adjacent presser slides; and Fig. 5 is adetail view showing the overlapping needle engag ing faces of the needlepressers,

The drawing illustrates only so much of the machine as is necessary toshow the connection of the present invention herewith.

As shown in the drawing the spring needles 2 are mounted in grooves inthe needle cylinder 4 which maybe rotated and oscillated by any suitablemechanism such as is usually employed for rotating and oscillating theneedle cylinder of a seamless hosiery machine; Each needle is actuatedand controlled'by a tion to be acted upon by the knitting cams byDivided and this application filed March F, N0, 520,310.

jack 6, the upper end of which is receseed to receive the hook-shapedbent lower end of the needle so thatthe needle may be advanced andretracted by lengthwise movement-of the j ackand so that the jack may beswung ra-' diall'y" inward and outward about the lower end of the needleto render the correspond ing needle inactive or active. Each jack isprovided with two outwardly projecting butts 8 and 10 for engaging theknitting cams 5 which advance and retract-the needs. The jacks arenormally held with theirbutts projecting from the needle grooves intoposisliders12 mounted in the needle grooves and provided at their upperends with forwardly extending projections 14 underlying guiding surfaces16 on the inner sidesof the jacks which are of suflicient length toremain engagement with the projections 14 during the forward andretracting movements of the jacks and needles. Below the projections 14each slideris cut away or recessed at 18 to permit the lower end of thejack to swing inward when the projection 14 is caused to register withthe recess 20 formed in the back of the jack beyond the upper end of theguiding surface 16. Near the lower end of the recess 18 the slider isprovided with a cam surface 22 arranged to engage the inclined lower endof the jack when the projection 14 registers with the recess 20 and.acting to positively swing the lower end of the ack radially inward toremove the butt 8 of the jack from active relation to the cams whichnormally act thereon while permitting the buttlO of the ack to remaininactive projectingposition. The jack and needle controllingsliders 12are provided near their lower ends with projecting butts 24 arrangedtobe engaged and acted upon by controlling cams and de-- vices, the.sliders corresponding to the instep needles being provided with longbutts while the sliders corresponding to the needles which 90 areoperated in knitting the heel and toe are provided with short butts.

The radially movable web holders 56 and sinkers 58 are mounted ingrooves in a dial 60 secured to the upper end of the needle cylinder andthese web holders and sinkers, as well as the radially movable pressersto be described, are provided with short and long butts corresponding tothe short and long butts of the needle controlling sliders 12 for thepurpose of rendering inactive that series of these knitting elementswhich corresponds to the instep needles so that the instep needles whichare partially up during the knitting of the heel or toe will not haveyarn kinked about them or be pressed or have the loops of the fabricheld thereby strained by the web holders. These knitting elementsmay beren dered active and inactive by cams corresponding to the cams whichact on the butts of the needle controlling sliders 12.

The relative movements of the needles, web holders, sinkers and pressersto form the knitting wave, and the construction and operation of thecams for actuating these elements are fully illustrated and described inthe applicants copending application above referred to. r

The meansffor pressing the beards of the needles which forms theprincipal feature of the present invention comprises a series ofradially movable pressers, the beard engaging portions of which overlapto form a continuous pressing surface movable toward and from theneedles. As shown the pressing means consists of a series of sliders 62mounted in the grooves of the dial 60 above the web holders 56 and belowthe sinker 58. V The presser sliders are provided at their outer endswith upwardly projecting butts, the instep pressers having long buttsand the pressers which are active during the knitting of the heel andtoe having short butts. The needle pressers are advanced topress theneedles by cams, one of which is indicated at 64 in Fig. 2, these camsbeing arranged to'en'gage both the long and short butts. The pressersare retracted by the corresponding sinkers, the forward ends of whichare provided with depending portions 66 arranged to engage the forwardends of the pressers during the backward movement of the sinkers. Theinner or needle engaging ends of the pressers are bent at right anglesto the sliding portions to form overlapping needle engaging surfaceswhich are preferably curved to conform to the needle circle. Alternatepressers (Fig. 4) have theirlaterally bent ends arranged above andoverlying the laterally bent ends (Fig. 3) of the intermediate pressers.The overlapping needle engaging surfaces .of the pressers thus form acontinuous pressing surface, as indicated in Fig. 5, surrounding theneedles and this surface is moved into and out of engagement with thebeards of the needles by the forward and return movement of theindividual pressers. With this construction the danger of mispressingdue to the deflection of any needle slightly out of line with thecorresponding presser is avoided and the proper and uniform pressing ofthe needle beards throughout the knitting is insured. The cams foradvancing the pressers are arranged to advance the pressers after theneedles have been drawn down to the pressing point and before thedownward movement of the needles is continued by the stitch cam as morefully illustrated in the copending application above referred to. Thepressers remain in advanced position until the, sinkers are withdrawnwhen the downwardly projectingend 66 of the sinkers act against theinnerends of the pressers to withdraw them to inactive position.

The cams for operating and controlling the sinkers and pressers arecarried by a stationary cam ring or support 68 and are arranged tooperate upon the upwardly projecting butts of these knitting elements.The cams for operating and controlling the web holders are mounted on acam ring 70 underlying the web holders, and these cams are arranged toengage the downwardly projecting butts of the web holders. The cams foradvancing and retracting the web holders are preferably so arranged thatthe web, holders after being withdrawn at the point where the activestitch cam draws the needles to the stitch level are not again advanceduntil the point is reached where the needles are advanced by the activeneedle advancing cam, thereby avoiding. subjecting the loops held by theneedles which are at the normallevel between these points to unnecessarystrain. This is permissible since the needles after passing the activestitch cam are not raised sufiiciently to require the web holders to bemoved inward until they reach the active needle advancing cams, butremain at an idle level only slightly above the level-to which they aredrawn by theactive stitch cam.

While the invention has been shown and described as applied to acircular machine in which the needles are mountedto move verticallyinthe grooves of a needle cylinder it will be understood that it is notconfined in its application to a machine of this character but may beembodied in machines having other forms of needle supports, and that thebroader features of the invention may be applied'to other types ofmachines.

What is claimed is:

1. In a knitting machine, a series of spring needles, and acorresponding series of reciprocating pressers provided with laterallyprojecting and overlapping beard pressing surfaces.

2. In a knitting machine, a circular series of spring needles and acorresponding circular series of independently movable pressers in frontof the needles provided with overlapping beard pressing surfaces.

3. In a knitting machine, a circular series of spring needles, acorresponding series of sliding pressers mounted in front of the needleseries and provided with laterally bent and overlapping forward ends forpressing the beards ofthe needles.

4. In a knitting machine, a series of independently movable springneedles, and a corresponding series of independently movable pressersprovided with laterally projecting and overlapping beard pressingsurfaces.

MAX 0. MILLER.

